How do you choose movies you want to watch?

[RCBH928]

Not sure if a similar topic exists,

but I was wondering how ? I think the old way of picking the movie of your favorite actor does not work anymore because movie quality fluctuates a lot with current actors(compare Nicholas Cage with late 90's with today) .

I used to pick choose after watching the trailer, but after some time I realized that all movies are canned stories put again with different characters and era . And don't get me started with sequels...
They also tend to exaggerate every movie for being "The next big thing..."

Lately I have been picking up movies by looking at their ratings on IMDB, for my great surprise , movies with similar ratings are very very different in quality and taste.

For example, The Jackal, which is one of my favorite movies of all time recieved 6.1/10 while Fearing and Loathing in Las Vegas which I had a very difficult time trying to finish it got 7.7/10 . On the other hand, The Dark Knight has a higher rating than Clockwork Orange which is supposed to be a master piece(I hated it by the way, it was sick) .

So ratings are unstable...
What is your best way of picking a movie up?

Lately I have been facing an issue, when i went to the IMDB top 250 and I saw most of them to my surprise, but I skip on older ones from the 40's and 50s as they do not appeal to my taste much.

[Luke]

1) Don't look at other people's ratings on deciding what to watch.

2) I'm a hypocrite as I find Roger Ebert is usually spot on with his 4 star ratings.

[dsheinem]

I mostly choose by director and genre, but also by critical response...

[prfsnl_gmr]

If you are looking for great films, I would not necessarily trust IMDB...

My wife and I are working our way through all of the American Film Institute's lists:

http://www.afi.com/100years/

and we are almost done. I found that watching each film on the list in conjunction with some research on each film's significance was a great way to educate myself about American films.

If you want to educate yourself about foreign film, I would also recommend working through Sight & Sound's top 50 films:

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time

or Richard Corliss's list of great films:

http://entertainment.time.com/2005/02/1 ... 00-movies/

Finally, if you are looking for fun movies that are not necessarily considered great, I would try some of the movies on Entertainment Weekly's list of cult films:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltgu ... 3XJ04Y4KDA

Working through these lists will expose you to a large number of directors, genres, and styles, and - if you find something you really like - you can look for other similar films.

[dsheinem]

good point. I spent 4-5 years in my late teens/early 20s watching the AFI 100. Great place to start...

[AppleQueso]

I watch movies based on a combination of what seems interesting looking to me and what stuff that Luke, Dsheinem, and the other movie thread regulars have enjoyed lately.

[OldSchool_Boy]

I just follow directors that I like.

[Nintendork666]

Genre/Sub-genre, Directors/Writers, Actors/Actresses

Normally I start off with the question, "What kind of movie would I like to watch tonight?"

[noiseredux]

I check MrSkin.com first.

[AznKhmerBoi]

I know its not a good way to determine whether a movie is good or not, but i tend to use the star on netflix :/